For the study, published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, the team involved 1504 women and 720 men.

Following the low-energy diet for eight weeks, weight loss was 16 per cent greater in men than in women (11.8 per cent and 10.3 per cent, respectively) but improvements in insulin resistance were similar.

"Despite adjusting for the differences in weight loss, it appears that men benefited more from the intervention than women," said lead author Pia Christensen from the varsity.

"However, the eight-week low-energy diet in individuals with pre-diabetes did result in the initial 10 per cent weight loss needed to achieve major metabolic improvement in the first phase of a diabetes prevention programme," Christensen added.

These findings are clinically important and suggest gender-specific changes after weight loss, the researchers noted.